If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Answers to WTFWTK 2.137!

Mattel has once again provided answers to your questions.
Thanks again to them for taking the time to answer these!
Check out their answers to your Round 137 questions!

This round of questions were selected by mjw41.
Thanks to that fan for their help!

1. Penny Dreadful: It is known that Mattel does not have the rights to character designs from the '87 movie for characters that were not made into figures during the 1980s. However, one of the major film characters, Karg, appeared prominently as a comic character in the US He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Magazine which Mattel/DreamWorks owns the rights to. Would it be possible for Mattel to release a Karg figure based on his design from the magazine as opposed to his design from the film?

That is something we would have to re-evaluate. Before we could do the figure we’d have to re-examine our current rights and what can be done in the future. There are a lot of great figures that we could do, especially if there is a demand for them.

2. Alexxandar: If a 2016 line materializes, exactly how will it differ from 2008 through 2015? (branding, packaging, design, sculpts, character selection, etc)

Like we stated before regarding 2016, there will be a 2016 line and it will continue to be the same figure style/sculpt/buck that you have come to love. We still have tons of characters to do, but only if you guys want to support the line and collect! You can probably expect some possible changes to the branding and the amount of items offered.

3. mjw41: Continuing from the previous question, if MOTUC in 2016 continues to use the current MOTUC buck structure, will Mattel also offer large scale beasts in 2016? There are many potential beasts like Molkrom, Colossor, Daimar The Demon, and Shokoti's The Great Sleeping Beast.

All we can say is there are some BIG things planned for 2016. We love bringing these bigger creatures to life, but we have to make sure we are not putting too many large tooling intensive items out at the same time. We also need to make sure that the risk is low when we do large scale items, since the tooling investment is so high. Demand must be high for what ever we do.

4. Shokoti's Slave: Will we see any new DVD releases? For example, a New Adventures complete collection?

There's always a possibility, but that also depends on what the different studios involved have planned.

5. zodak74: There's been speculation that a new He-Man animated series is in the works. If so, fans would love some news about this! Does Mattel have anything for us on that front?

We would love to give you more info but we can't. It's definitely a possibility something like that could happen along side a MOTU movie release, if and when that ever happens.

Hope to see you at Power-Con 2018!
JVS3 = Val Staples = Power-Con, Event Director | He-Man.Org, Owner | Guy who has been fortunate to work on a LOT of MOTU & POP projects
Please check out my Facebook page

There isn't really anything new here, though the approach has changed a bit. We knew 2016 was being planned, but whether it will survive the sub-drive this summer remains to be seen. Even I am having some doubts on that...

Lots of great news this time. It sounds like there are some large scale items planned for 2016, definitely new figures, and maybe fewer to make it easier to keep collecting. Karg also being a possibility will make a lot of people happy.

These are great answers! It sounds like they are planning to reduce the number of items offered in 2016, which is good news I think because I feel months like Q4 2014 were just too expensive.
It's also great to hear there might be large scale items planned!

These are great answers! It sounds like they are planning to reduce the number of items offered in 2016, which is good news I think because I feel months like Q4 2014 were just too expensive.
It's also great to hear there might be large scale items planned!

Exactly !
Besides, the less they make figures the more fans are willing to pay extra cash for bigger items
which makes it more viable for a certain Motu items category to keep running.

While the answers are a lot clearer and more like answers than quotes,i can't help but get the feeling of reverse psychology here,they seen the way Scott alienated the fans with his answers and attitude and now they have decided on a different approach,be nice to the fans and keep them sweet giving the fans good answers until sub renewal time.
Not saying that it's not good to have some actual answers but i think we should all be careful before we shout to the rooftops about how nice they are treating the fans all of a sudden.

Great, positive answers all around. And the part about Karg was especially refreshing. I hope they really do look into what they can do in order to get a Karg figure out to us, even if it isn't a movie design figure. He's been a long time coming!

These are great answers! It sounds like they are planning to reduce the number of items offered in 2016, which is good news I think because I feel months like Q4 2014 were just too expensive.
It's also great to hear there might be large scale items planned!

Yep, this^^^ I think, is the way to go, who knows from the 'big things' comment we might even get Stridor, it's the only thing I can think of that would be fan demanded, and still have mould reuse

1) is that the people answering these questions now Scott has gone aren't really aware of who Karg is, or at least to say they don't have the Masters of the Universe knowledge as Scott did. Therefore they need to re-evaluate the situation because they don't have the knowledge to say off hand 'we can't make him because we definitely do not have the rights

2) Maybe Scott deliberately told us that they don't have the rights purely because of a disinterest/dislike/disdain he had for the character, and therefore used not having the rights as an excuse not to make a figure for him.

I hope it's school of thought number 2 and that we do get a Karg before the end of the line. if the 4H could do to the figure what they've done to Gwildor (i.e., make him look like he was in the movie) then I'll be super happy. I'll be 8 of them. Maybe even 9.

I'd agree with basically everyone here about the Karg info. Sure it is likely or at least could be someone who is saying something that they maybe shouldn't, and I always respected the idea put forward that they were not trying to look for loopholes.

That being said, heck with that. Loopholes are great. Before Filmation rights I was so very pleased that they made clearly filmation designs, however they rationalized it.

I know Karg is just one character, and not really important or maybe even appealing. But he existed, was unique, and deserves a place especially in MOTUC considering all the other diversity this line has.

I use the same argument for Songster, and I also put forth that I want Songster very much more than Karg.

Anyway if the answers are still non-confirmational for some, at least it is more upbeat? Also I do not recall confirmation, and I mean confirmation, about a 2016. I think it may again be someone answering questions prematurely because they dont know how rabid we fans are, and it is not confirmed, but they said there would be a 2016 sub. The other part of the answer makes me think maybe only 6 figures, or 8, or less at least, which is fine as long as they are comming.